The CW's ARROW and THE FLASH Go Digital-First at DC Comics for Must-Read TV Tie-Ins

By Lucas Siegel, Site Editor July 9, 2014 09:52am ET

Covers to Arrow: Season 2.5 and The Flash: Season Zero

Credit: TV Guide.com / DC Comics

While Arrow writers are taking over the Green Arrow comic in the DC Comics main New 52 line of print books, the TV series - and its new companion - are coming to digital, as well.

A new run of Arrow digital-first comics will begin in September, followed closely by The Flash digital comics, as well. The debuts are set for Monday September 1 and Monday September 8, respectively, and the comics will tie-in very closely to the TV series they’re connected to.

In fact, the stories, written by writers from the shows, will take place directly between two episodes of their respective shows. EP Marc Guggenheim and staff writer Keto Shimizu are co-writing what’s being called Arrow: Season 2.5, and will be taking the story “from the end of Season 2 right up to the beginning of Season 3,” the producer told TVGuide.com’s Rich Sands in an announcement interview.

The digital series will specifically reveal what happens next to Detective Lance as well as “a good chunk of the burning questions left over” from the season finale. There will be two story arcs, the first dealing mostly with wrap-up from Season 2 and the second helping set up Season 3.

“We’re going to start introducing characters… you’ll start to see characters in the comics before they show up on TV,” Guggenheim said, emphasizing the importance of the comics. Joe Bennett and Jack Jadson will draw Arrow: Season 2.5.

Meanwhile, just as The CW’s Arrow is getting a new companion series in the form of The Flash this fall, so will the digital comic. The Flash: Season Zero will take place between the pilot episode and the second episode of the series’ first season.

”Barry will be the Flash, he will have his team, everyone will be in that world, and we’ll introduce a new set of villains that we won’t be seeing on the TV show,” EP Andrew Kreisberg told TVGuide. The pilot covers the origin story of the hero (replayed and expanded upon from his Arrow tie-in appearance), so the comic can jump right into the super heroics.

Brooke Elkmeier and Katherine Walczak will write The Flash: Season Zero with art by Phil Hester and Eric Gapstur. The new villains who won’t be on TV are circus performers who gained super powers in the same accident as The Flash. In the conceit of the series, metahumans have been cropping up in the area since the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator explosion. A DC Comics villain named Mr. Bliss will be at the head of the gang.